Travel Dates: September 20-23, 2023
We left Canada and visited Vermont and a bit of New Hampshire before heading back through Massachusetts to Boston to catch our flight home. Our first night was in Burlington, Vermont where Terri and Carla had scoped out the Shelburne Museum. What a conglomeration of stuff “collections of art and Americana”. We had set aside half the day for the experience and we barely scratched the surface.
Our first stop was to visit two hand-carved wood circus models. Showcased in an enormous horseshoe shaped building was the 500 foot-long (!) Arnold Circus Parade. The pieces were carved between 1925 and 1955. Here is a semi-closeup of a wagon hauling hippopotami.
After spending 2½ weeks in moose country this is the closest we got. When I look at their size I’m thinking it was a good thing we didn’t get closer.
Somewhere a distant third to our quest for moose and for all things maple was our hunt for covered bridges. The museum obliged.
There are over two dozen buildings on the grounds. We didn’t see them all by any means, but my favorite of those we did see is the lighthouse which was built in 1871 and originally guided ships on Lake Champlain. In 1952 it was dismantled and reassembled at the museum.
The most striking item in the collection and a testament of what you can do when you have more money than you know what to do with is the 220 foot-long steamboat Ticonderoga. To quote the museum’s web page:
Built in Shelburne in 1906, the Ticonderoga … operated as a day boat on Lake Champlain, serving ports along the New York and Vermont shores until 1953. In 1955, it was moved two miles overland from the lake to Shelburne Museum in a remarkable engineering effort that stands as one of the great feats of maritime preservation.
Shelburne Museum Website
After leaving the museum we headed through Waterbury to the Ben and Jerry’s original ice cream factory. Ben and Jerry bonded in middle school as the two slowest kids in Physical Education class. I’m glad they hung out together because their ice cream is fantastic and they promote social justice causes.
The workers were cleaning up a huge mess when we got to the catwalk above the factory floor. Apparently a few hundred carton lids were fed in the machinery upside down and a LOT of ice cream from pint cartons was spilling out on the working floor.
We weren’t 100% sure we’d get ice cream samples on the tour so we all bought double scoops first. Yep, we got samples at the end. This picture shows what an ice cream OD looks like.
From there we headed over to White River Junction, Vermont; just across the Connecticut River from New Hampshire for a two night stay. The next morning (September 21) we headed out for some general sightseeing. We scratched our itch to view a maple farm. Driving along some dirt roads we finally found Sugarbush Farms.
My mental image of maple sap collection for syrup comes from seeing a film strip in elementary school. Workers pounded metal tubes into maple trees and hung buckets from them to collect the sap. No longer; now there are miles of tubes to carry draining sap to a central collection point.
Here is a closeup
Not as romantic as I had imagined; but the results are in the eating; we all enjoyed some maple treats from the gift shop. The farm also raises cows and makes delicious cheese. We bought a bit of cheese for our happy hour but left the cans of syrup in the store. They were just too big and heavy to fit in our suitcases. But I promised myself I’d order some on-line. I need to live up to that promise! I have an application in mind for that – we’ll see that in a few paragraphs.
We spent some time driving along the White and Connecticut Rivers in search of covered bridges.
Along the way we stopped at the visitor’s center for Quechee Gorge; the best view was from the bridge. I hope you can get a sense of how deep it is.
Across the highway was a little roadside stand that sells maple creemees! Terri’s friend who grew up in Vermont said we absolutely have to try one. Oh My Goodness they are tasty. A maple creemee is a soft serve ice cream sweetened with maple syrup.
This would be the perfect application for some of that syrup from Sugarbush Farm. Maybe next summer I’ll make some. Eventually we headed back to our motel to freshen up then went out to celebrate Carla’s birthday with a nice dinner.
That brings us to September 22; our last full day of the trip. Our main stop of the day was the Lincoln Family Home in Hildene, Vermont. But before we got there we had to eat, AGAIN. We found the Road Runner Cafe in Manchester, VT. It was a beautiful day so we ate outside at a picnic table. This was so good; especially those beans. If you find yourself within an hour of Manchester do yourself a favor and stop at the Road Runner for lunch.
Back on the road we got to the Lincoln family home.
The Green Mountains in the background make a wonderful backdrop for the gardens.
Over the previous few days we dipped into New Hampshire a bit; but, as you can see, we spent most of the time in Vermont. Happily our last night’s stay for the trip would be in the Granite State. Unhappily we didn’t tour enough to get any real pictures. But, when we checked into our motel in Manchester (NH) I laughed out loud at this guy’s shirt.
Our job for the 23rd was to turn in our car and get to Logan Airport. Since our flight wasn’t scheduled to leave until 7:30pm we had plenty of time. Jim picked Salem, Massachusetts as a perfect place to spend some time. Checking out the home of the Salem witch trials sounded great. Unfortunately, in the month or so leading up to Halloween, seemingly everyone in New England had the same idea. We were stuck in traffic in town for an hour and there was not a parking spot to be found. After gawking a bit at the revelers we decided to find lunch and get to the airport early.
Our flight was delayed by a couple of hours but we got to sit in the airport bar and watch the University of Oregon Ducks demolish the Colorado Buffaloes led by Deion Sanders. Our flight home was uneventful and we spent a few days resting up. What a great trip.
